Skills Improvement

Entrepreneurs fail. That’s part of the lifestyle.

Global Citizen here – I was thinking about all of the positive news that usually surrounds entrepreneurs and their lifestyles. I wondered how many times those same entrepreneurs talk about when things that they are trying — read present tense — are not going well for them. There are plenty of articles about entrepreneurs who have failed — again read past tense. This will be one article where I tried something, and am not afraid to share with you — were things are not going well — and I’m working on improving!

Since last we spoke, I had recently started a segment called “Let Me Draw You A Diagram” — where I would create little illustrations to help you “visualize” the points in the article.

Intially, I had created these illustrations using an iPad + Sketchbook Express + my stylus. After a few iterations and one post with a diagram included, I do have to say that the output was less than awesome. I will be the first to say it. It was miserable — dare I say…a failure.

Base assumptions

But I still believed that pictures are worth 1000 words. Diagrams are used to visualize concepts. The problem here was that I draw like a 4-year-old. The base assumptions were true. The problem was in the execution. So – I decided to double down. Rather than kill the idea, I decided to double down on passion and double down on skills.

It didn’t matter that I drew like a 4-year-old! I will tape my own drawing to my own fridge!

I watched more tutorials on youtube. I asked friends for advice, and I upgraded my tools. I am now using Adobe Illustrator CS6 + Wacom Bamboo Capture tablet. Don’t worry this is not a review for the Wacom Bamboo Capture. I kept practicing. Command-N, gives you a new canvas in Illustrator. Believe me, I had that keyboard shortcut memorized after a few hours of practice.